Photography: Serious Eats – Street Food in Bangkok

Here’s a bold statement: Bangkok is the greatest eating city in the world. It’s the only place I can think of where you can spend a month just wandering the streets, eating every single thing that tickles your fancy, three meals a day (with snacks in between), and never try the same thing twice. And to top it all off, you can do it all for under $5 a day.

From hawkers selling omelets over makeshift burners in a single, beat-up wok to the crowds of locals and tourists hankering for fried meat and soups at Chatuchak market, from the banana pancake-studded hippie paradise of Khao Sarn Road (it’s like the Times Square of Bangkokâ€”you’d be hard pressed to find a single Thai person there) to the full-on madness of the Patpong Night Market and its rows of food stalls, an awesome meal is never far away.

I haven’t spent a great deal of time in Thailand in relative terms, but I can say one thing: outside of one bad experience in a shopping mall, I did not eat a single thing that didn’t completely blow me away with its vibrant flavor. (I can’t wait to get back.)